Departmental presentation of second year PhD research, Arizona State University

1. the undoing of an online community merger
&
its implications for globalized politics
John Carter McKnight
Human & Social Dimensions of Science & Technology
Second Year Research Presentation
Arizona State University
September 2010

2.  in2009, two communities in Second Life
negotiated a merger with a year trial period
 forsix months in 2010, the communities
factionalized, and bitter verbal conflict escalated
 inJuly 2010, the governing board of one
community voted unanimously to terminate the
merger

3.  cross-cultural clash of assumptions over
definitions:
 democracy
 participation
 citizen(ship)
 suggestive of an extreme unpopularity of
electoral-governmental forms for voluntary
communities
 overall rarity of “democratic” communities
online
 democratic fundamentalism!

4.  1,903,000,000 sq.m. non-Linden land
4 “democratic” communities: ~852,000
sq.m.
 five
one-thousandths of one percent of SL
land is democratically governed
 78users out of 1.2 million have chosen an
elected government

5.  platform architecture:
• land “purchased” from Linden Lab must be held in
the name of either an individual or a US nonprofit
corporation
• communications tools default to a sole owner
 voting with dollars:
• 99.995% of SL is *sublet* by people paying for
corporate/feudal management instead of self-
governance
 same in *all* game & non-game virtual
worlds

6.  Extropia
• one vote – to replace the participatory system with
a pure managerial one
 LAW 791, Spring 2010
• law students created a class junta
• one student circumvented a month-long debate to
name herself Guild Master, create group and bank

7.  “participant-engagement” (Pearce 2009)
• 92 forum posts
• elected to 13th Representative Assembly
• Chair, CDS Communications Commission
• post-merger Communications & Culture chair, Al
Andalus
• host monthly social events
• attended most governmental meetings of both
groups, many social events

8.  Kendall (2002): “BlueSky”
 Castronova (2002): Everquest
 Taylor (2006): Everquest
 Steinkeuhler (2006): Lineage I, Lineage II
 Boellstorff (2008): Second Life
 Pearce (2009): The Uru Diaspora
 Gee & Hayes (2010): The Sims
 Nardi (2010): World of Warcraft

9.  ~2500 pages of logged text chat/IMs
 ~500 screen-capture photographs
 ~10 hours of one-on-one interviews
 key threads read from 6 years of forum
posts

10. a non-game virtual world
 in operation since 2003
 ~1.2 million regular users
 interaction via avatars through a software
client
 voice capacity but text chat used
exclusively in this context

11.  most are tied to virtual land
 two sets of governance issues
• property: subleasing, aesthetics, security
• social: events, cohesion, disputes

12.  The
Confederation of Democratic
Simulators
 The Virtual Democracy of Al Andalus
131 “citizens” of the merged entity on
4/18/2010, 78 of the CDS post-merger
(inclusive of dual citizens)

13.  grew out of a discussion on the SL forums
in 2004 on democratic self-governance of
regions
 from 1/3 region in 2004 to 5 on the eve of
merger in 2009
 small, but long-lasting
 focus on formal institutions styled on the
nation-state

14.  founded by CDS legislative veterans
 initially an attempt at a liberal global
caliphate online, governed by a
progressive interpretation of Sharia, under
the founder as Caliph
 after the founder’s departure, re-
envisioned as a space for global
encounters with religious and secular
views and spaces

15.  Al Andalus had successful events but little
to no staff
 CDS had a lot of staff, but little non-
governmental activity
 assumed synergies
 Al Andalus principals were current or
former CDS officials, familiar with the
culture

16.  negotiated by a US lawyer on each side
 “The Wasp Clause” provided a one year
trial period, with right of refusal on each
side
 vocal opposition in Al Andalus, less vocal
opposition in the CDS

17.  both defined themselves as “democratic”
 both saw Al Andalus as ad-hoc, vibrant
 both saw CDS as formalist, divisive, a
harder-edged politics
 some in each group wanted synergy, some
feared loss of unique identity

18.  dominated by CDS “old guard”
 weak Leader of the RA allowed meetings
to turn to off-topic confrontations
 weak Chancellor failed to negotiate
operating agreement as called for
 growing conflict over personalities and
politics, along community lines

19.  “Al Andalus will force a sale of the CDS
sims to a US nonprofit corporation”
 “Al Andalus is anti-democratic”
• cult of personality around Sultana
• representational/participatory customs ≠
democracy
 “CDS has a hostile & divisive political
culture”

20.  7/6 split largely along community-of-origin
lines
 failure to elect a Chancellor led to carry-
over of previous Chancellor
 more civil tone, much greater productivity
under new LRA from Al Andalus

21.  referendum
• 23 approve, 17 disapprove, 16 abstain/no vote
 Al Andalus closed meetings
• before election, very large majorities in favor of
merger termination
 Al Andalus open meetings
• after election, sense of inevitable termination
 13th
RA would not have had 2/3 majority to
terminate

22.  VirtualDemocracy, Inc. board votes
unanimously to terminate Al Andalus
participation

23.  13th RA passing key reform legislation by
super-majorities
 online forum as confrontational as ever
 very little change in CDS membership,
debate between procedural and
substantive advocates continues unabated
 CDS running active calendar of social
events
 Al Andalus re-launch

24. John Carter McKnight, MIA, JD
john.mcknight@asu.edu
johncartermcknight.com
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Second Life: Kaseido Quandry